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Sunday, September 8, 2013

No-Spend August! Part One

Okay, this is what you've been waiting for (all one of you that is)...no spend August. How? Why? What?

The premise is simple: Go the entire month without spending any money, with the exception of your regular bills and mortgage/rent.

When people asked me at work, they inquired about groceries, gas, etc. "You're spending money on milk and bread and stuff, right?" "Nope." *gasp* "Did you just buy a whole month's worth of food in the month before?" "Nope." *gasp* "Well, how DID you do it?" Well, it was definitely a trial and we did not make it all the way through August. More on that later.

First of all, I want to tell you where this delectable little brainchild came from. Extreme Cheapskates is a show on TLC and one night my husband and I happened upon it. That episode had a couple named Jeff and Denise Yeager. He periodically does a "fiscal fast" where they spend the bare minimum and instead tried to use what they had on hand to live. In a great interview with them, at LearnVest he says that he usually does it for a week at a time, but on the show they fasted an entire month. On the show he was shown using the remainder of a jelly jar, splashing a little vinegar in it, and creating a vinaigrette for a salad he was serving. The show and the idea of a "fiscal fast" really resonated with me and stuck in the back of my head.

Then, we had a month where we spent like we were millionaires on crap we found useful, but wasn't altogether necessary. That's when I really decided to put the plan in action.

My husband and I have gone through the Debt Snowball with Dave Ramsey and eliminated credit cards and all of our debt (except our mortgage) within the last several years, but I really wanted to put away some extra in our savings.

My goal was to save $1000 in one month. We netted about $1500, which is clearly more than I was expecting. Awesomeness!

Our plan in action

First the caveats:

1) We buy our meat from a locker in bulk and therefore, had a reserve in our deep freeze.

2) We are part of a CSA. What's that? So glad you asked...Local Harvest and CSAs. Therefore, no need to buy fresh produce. We do try to eat as cleanly as possible and this helps us continue to work toward being off of processed food.

3) We have children, but they are my husband's and he doesn't have residential custody of them. Therefore, he pays child support and this means we don't physically buy the school supplies and clothing ourselves. (Child support and the dead beat parents is a whole 'nother rant waiting to be written.)

Now, we did stock up a wee bit before August hit, mainly on toilet paper and toiletries, but we also planned about 8-10 bigger meals for the month that we specifically shopped for before August as well. The rest of our meals came from our pantry, freezer, and CSA.

Finally, I want to tell you that my husband is a wonderful man and totally bought in. As I was explaining this to him, he asked questions, a lot of them. I started the conversation in June and we worked through contingency plans. My husband smokes and he was worried about being able to buy them. I told him, back in June, to start stocking up on cigarettes and I would start trying to stock up on beer. I'm sorry, but the thought of going 4 weeks without a Busch Light made me die a little inside. ;) However, my husband made the unilateral decision to give up smoking in the month of August. In order to help with that, he requested that we give up drinking beer for the entire month as well.

There are many more details that go into a no-spend month. This is just a brief overview. In my next blog post I will go into some of the finer points of living without buying anything for an entire month. The one thing I have loved about doing a no-spend month, among many things, is that we had to depend on more creativity to get through. I learned to love baking fresh bread, making up pan sauces with what I had on hand, and also found that I really love not having to go to the grocery store for an entire month! We did 3 solid weeks of dedication. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law passed away on August 22nd and that interrupted our spending. However, I still haven't gone to the grocery store.

About Me

Hello! My name is Janelle and I am a typical stepmother, living in Kansas and writing about my trials and triumphs. It does usually involve more of the former than the latter. I love to hang out with my awesome stepkids and my husband and I definitely love to write. I write about everything and sometimes it's even slightly humorous! Stick around, hang out, comment and share my stuff. Thanks for stopping by my corner of the 'net!